My understanding of the Rune was it was an exercise of over the top design with no real expectation of any type of volume sales. From a design standpoint it really did push the envelope on a number of fronts. Not my cup o tea but I do appreciate it to a certain extent. I never saw one on the road.

For $13K there are a lot better touring choices out there and none of them are long stroke V-Twins or weigh over 700 freaking pounds.

To lay claim on what makes a better tourer, especially when you're crossing genres as you're implying, is extremely subjective.

For $13k, there are no from-the-ground-up tourers, like a Gold Wing, on the market new.

In the land of cruiser-based tourers, for $13k, there really isn't anything better than the V Star 1300 Deluxe. Sure it doesn't have cruise control or ABS, but looking at what the competition offers at that price point (Interstate, Sportster with some bags, a stripped Dyna, the Suzuki C90T...), it's worlds ahead in content.

With Honda's NT700V now out of the picture, the only sport-tourer at that price range is also the only proper mid-size sport-tourer—to this individual anyway—in the U.S. market, the BMW F800GT. Its belt drive, forward-but-not-agressive riding triangle, available bags, etc., makes it a very smart choice for a lot of people. However, given its lesser weather protection (small and non-adjustable windscreen), a riding position that people with a more relaxed form of riding would never capitalize on, less friendly two-up riding nature (higher center of gravity and smaller passenger area), side-load bag nonsense, lack of standard content... the F800GT, for as brilliant as I think it is, might not be the answer for a lot of people.

Sport-standards and adventure tourers (legitimate ones and otherwise) may also fair well for touring and can often be equipped with OEM accessories to further enhance that duty. Nonetheless, their disadvantages echo my aforementioned harangue for sport-tourers. Add in a more labor intensive chain-drive to the equation and it's easy to see why these might not be everyone's solution.

So yes, perhaps there are better tourers out there that don't have a v-twin... for you. But I'm afraid to brush of the entire genre simply because it doesn't fit your cup of tea may be a bit shortsighted.

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